Members approve ‘09 budget

With a $974,852 valuation increase to $35,895,090, the City of Tonganoxie will be able to hold the same mill levy in 2009 as it did in 2008.

Council members approved the budget after a public hearing during Monday's council meeting.

The budget is broken down to: 10.688 mills for the general fund, up .14 from 2008; 9.915 mills for employee benefits fund, up 1.41 from 2008; 6.463 mills for the city's debt service, down 1.357 from 2008; 5.793 mills for the Tonganoxie Public Library, down .125 from 2008; and .860 mills for library employee benefits, down .068 from 2008.

A mill is $1 in taxes for every $1,000 in assessed valuation.

No members of the public spoke during the budget hearing. The council then approved the 2009 budget, 3-0. Council members Steve Gumm and Jim Truesdell were absent.

Mike Yanez, the city administrator, said he wanted to thank the staff and the different city departments for helping come up with the fiscal year 2009 budget.

"I think it's a good financial package and I think it will give us in 2009 some good capital projects as well as some maintenance on our routine services that the citizens count on from day to day," he said.

Council member Tom Putthoff also thanked the staff for working hard on getting the next year's budget ready.

In other news, the Tonganoxie City Council:

¢ Listened to an update on the new Public Works Facility from Clay Phillips of BG Consultants, the city's engineering firm. Phillips said the entire project was estimated at $1.9 million dollars, but the total cost of the project was under $1.5 million. The total cost included change orders. Yanez said the city was planning for an open house for the new public work's facility.

"It's a huge facility. It should serve the city for the next 20 or 30 years," he said.

Phillips also answered the question of whether a geothermal heating and cooling system would have been an option for the new facility. He said engineers looked into that option during the design stage, but decided it would take too long for the money saved in energy to equal the amount it would cost to install the system.

¢ Discussed the end of the pool season schedule. Yanez said there weren't enough lifeguards available to keep the pool open for its regular hours during the week once the school year starts. The pool will be closed during the week starting Aug. 18, but it will still be open for its regular schedule during the weekends and during the Labor Day weekend.

Water aerobics will still be held at the regular time, with the final session being on Aug. 26.

The final day of pool season will be Sept. 1.

¢ Discussed the final plan for the first phase of the Tonganoxie Skate Park. Yanez said that David Hamby, of BG Consultants, which designed the park, anticipated the project to cost less than the $100,000 budget for the park.

¢ Was told by Yanez that the city had received more than 100 responses to the survey sent out by Bucher, Willis and Ratliff, the city planning firm, about what can be done to revitalize retail business in Tonganoxie. Yanez said about the only thing all of the responses had in common was an interest in renovating the four-corners area on U.S. Highway 24-40 and Kansas Highway 16.